by Shane Koyczan
Strategies/Skills Used
Reading Strategy 1: Access background knowledge.
Reading Strategy 2: Predict what will be learned or what will happen.
Reading Strategy 3: Figure out unknown words.
Reading Strategy 4: Self-monitor and self-correct.
Reading Strategy 5: Make mental pictures.
Reading Strategy 12: Reflect and respond.
TEACHING THE ACTIVITY: PRE-READING
(1) Show students To This Day picture and use the Guided Imagery activity to describe a situation where a student is being bullied.
(2) Use the To This Day Wordle to complete the Sort and Predict activity.
TEACHING THE ACTIVITY: DURING READING
(3) Ask students to create a simple T-chart with the headings “person who is bullied” and “person who bullies.” Students will watch a video clip and choose words they think are important in the message, putting them under the appropriate category. Students should look for the poet’s use of repetition and emphasis.
(4) Show the “To This Day Project” video clip.
TEACHING THE ACTIVITY: POST-READING
(5) Have students share some of the words and terms they collected. Discuss the difference between the two categories. Were there any words that could have fit in both categories?
(6) Have students listen to the CBC interview with Shane Koyczan. As students listen, have them add words to their T-chart.
(7) Assign groups of three or four students, and assign to half of the groups the perspective of the person who is bullied and to the other half of the groups the perspective of the person who bullies.
(8) Ask groups to write a two-stanza poem with the rhyme scheme ABBA ACCA, in which the last line in each stanza is the same.
(9) Put the poems together and display in the classroom.